Tag: Cryptocurrency

I made a few Dogecoin-themed Facebook timeline cover images during a contest on Reddit last week. I wanted to create more minimalistic images rather than the extremely busy/stylized images other contestants were presenting. I also wanted to steer away from the Comic Sans MS and Doge-speak in favor of a more serious look. The resulting images are displayed below along with a Facebook demo and anyone is welcome to use them on Facebook (or elsewhere) to show their support for Dogecoin. Just click on the image to see it full-size! To the Moon!

The first block reward halving for Dogecoin resulted in many Reddit users asking when the event was occuring and how much the new block reward would be. I haven’t been able to find a good countdown website so I decided to throw one together myself. It uses the DogeChain API to grab the current block number and estimates the time until the next change in the block reward. Since the Dogecoin protocol establishes the specific block rewards, it’s relatively simple to calculate it with some accuracy. Check it out by clicking here!

While Bitcoin is the undisputed leader of the cryptocurrency world, a meme-based alternative called Dogecoin has gained steam over the past month. Sporting the comical Shiba Inu dog character from the “doge” meme, this altcoin gained significant media coverage recently after helping raise $30,000 for the Jamaican bobsled team for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Promoters of this cryptocurrency have been extremely vocal about the carefree attitude surrounding Dogecoin and actively encourage giving freely to others (tipping) in order to raise awareness. The userbase has exploded since its December 6, 2013, introduction with over 33 billion Dogecoin mined to date. The growing online presence and transaction volume have caused the Dogecoin blockchain to swell to over 2GB in size. The lack of a thin client means that new users must download and verify the entire blockchain before they can participate. While online wallets do exist, many users are wary following a Christmas Day hack that resulted in the loss of millions of Dogecoin. The desktop wallet software offers client-side encryption and eliminates the need to trust a third party to secure your assets. The downsides of the desktop client are the extremely slow initial sync and need to constantly resync with the blockchain network. Fortunately there’s a trick that can help speed up the initial blockchain download by loading the blockchain from a local file rather than the network.